I’ve slid many things into and out of ovens over several decades, and have gathered a fair amount of praise from those eating the results. I’m not past being surprised, though, as I was last night. I had a run-in with the Yeast Beast.[More….]

Even if you’ve never had one, you may be familiar with the idea of the three-martini lunch.* Such a thing is definitely outside my experience for a number of reasons (Mormon, not a business executive, not a restaurant person, etc.). Myself, I incline toward the three-container lunch. [More….]

The kids and I are back for a second helping of Spain, and are getting settled in. We arrived earlier this week after a quick stop in Istanbul.* Our apartment this year is in a neighborhood called el Grao [More….]

I’ll catch you up shortly on our latest shift of continent, but in the meantime, here is the substance of my first real conversation in Istanbul (I’m not counting exchanges in the airport or hotel), which took place at a restaurant a few blocks from where we’re staying:[More….]

I haven’t given you much detail so far about what we’ve been eating in Spain. That’s partly because I’ve been focusing on cooking it rather than describing it, and partly because I’m quite the common denominator[More….]